If you don't nominate books for the Cybils, then....5 good reasons and 2 less good ones to Nominate Now!

Nominations for the Cybils close today (at 11:59 PST, Oct. 15)) (edited to add: nominations are now closed)

If you don't nominate a book you love for the Cybils, you won't:

1.  Have your good taste vindicated when it makes it to the short list with your name and link next to it, nor will you have lots of blog visitors as a result.

2.  Be telling a much loved author you love her or his book

3.  Be thanking the publisher of a book you love

4.  Be ensuring that the book is read by up to seven bloggers, who might well love it too and spread the word on their blogs

5.  Be sending a message to anyone who cares about children's book awards that we who are part of the children's and YA blog community, as writers of blogs or readers of blogs or both, are incredibly passionate about great books for young readers!

And if you don't nominate a book in mg sff, and the book you don't nominate is a  really good book that I have never read, I might never get the pleasure of reading it and that would be sad for me! (and, because I am not selfish, sad for my fellow panelists as well).

And YA sff will win viz number of books.   (I am also not competitive.  I just like to add excitement to things by pretending I am.  Really).

Here I am not being competitive:  Middle grade sci fi/fantasy nominations are trailing YA 117 books to 157 (edited to add: this is now the more or less final tally or nominations from the floor; the numbers may change slighty as books get shifted between categories) and although YA gets a boost, numberwise, from accepting ebooks, and there are some over in regular mg that might get shifted to mg sff, still. 

Here's where you go to nominate. (nominations now closed)

Here are the books that have already been nominated.

And here are just a few mg sff books that haven't been nominated (and which I haven't necessarily read, so I have no real idea if they truly should be or not....)

(and just to say--one of the real, sincere reasons I keep bringing up all the books that haven't been nominated is that in YA, the actual audience for the books are people old enough to go forth and support the books they love--in mg, it's the responsibility of the gatekeepers!  This applies to many other categories too, so do feel free to fill out an entire slate of nominations.  And continuing to be sincere, I care about what's nominated because of being a panelist--I want the list of books from which we have to choose to be the best that it can be)

(and this year, since the publishers are going to get a chance to fill in the gaps, I'm not as sad about how long this list is as I have been in years past...)

(this is an incomplete list; I'm sure I'm forgetting many great books, and don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings by not including their book....)

The Crimson Shard, by Teresa Flavin

The Mourning Emporium, by Michelle Louvric

Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom, by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

Troll Hunters by Michael Dahl

Of Giants and Ice by Shelby Bach

Heart of Stone, by M.L. Welsh

The Last Guardian, by Eoin Colfer

Crow Country, by Kate Constable (ages 10-14, so perhaps more at home in YA)

Dark Lord, by Jamie Thomson

The land of Neverbelieve, by Norman Messenger (perhaps more at home in picture books)

Unlocking the Spell, by E.D. Baker

Muncle Trogg by Janet Foxley

 SEEDS OF REBELLION: BEYONDERS by Brandon Mull

THE STAR SHARD by Frederic S. Durbin

BLISS by Kathryn Littlewood

 THE CROWFIELD DEMON by Pat Walsh

THE WHISPER by Emma Clayton

 PRINCESS OF THE WILD SWANS by Diane Zahler

STEALING MAGIC: A SIXTY-EIGHT ROOMS ADVENTURE by Marianne Malone

The Golden Door, by Emily Rodda

Claws, by Mike Grinti and Rachel Grinti

The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan

The Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill-Fated, by Gerald Morris

The Stones of Ravenglass, by Jenny Nimmo

 MOUSENET by Prudence Breitrose

THE FUTURE DOOR: NO PLACE LIKE HOLMES by Jason Lethcoe

 LITTLE WOMEN AND ME by Lauren Baratz-Logsted 

MADAME PAMPLEMOUSSE AND THE ENCHANTED SWEET SHOP by Rupert Kingfisher

THE OUTCASTS: BROTHERBAND CHRONICLES by John Flanagan

 THE TWILIGHT CIRCUS: WOLVEN by Di Toft